A. Stephanie reminded the committee that Bob Pladek, President of New Jersey Lawyers Service (NJLS) would arrive at 10:15 to go over their proposal for short-term BCCLS delivery. Kurt reiterated that BCCLS could make some funding available for such an ontaking, but the recommendation needs to be brought to Executive Board by DTF.

B. Two pieces of correspondence were received and briefly discussed: a delivery suggestion from Saddle Brook resident Howard Heffan and notes Cindy forwarded from a meeting of ASCLA's Physical Delivery Interest Group, held on February 11 at ALA Midwinter. Cindy will reply to the former.

III. Presentation from NJLS

A. Mr. Pladek submitted a comprehensive proposal for short-term BCCLS delivery with the option of 5 days/week or 3 days/week. Cost for 76 libraries would be $5,510/week for 5 days or $4,788/week for 3 days. The committee asked that the numbers be re-run to account for 80 libraries (including branches, the BCCLS Office, and Rochelle Park). This would total about $275-300,000 for the year. Billing would be monthly. The minimum term for the contract would be six weeks.

B. If a contract is signed between NJLS and BCCLS, NJLS could begin delivery in 2 weeks.

C. LLNJ's old (pre-Expak) labels would be sufficient. NJLS would just have to change the route numbers to their own.

D. There would likely be 4 routes. 5 drivers would be employed by NJLS in the event that someone calls out. DTF reviewed the routes. NJLS would ensure that drivers have appropriately sized vehicles.

E. Next-day delivery is anticipated. Forward sorting by the libraries will help facilitate this.

IV. Discussion

A. NJLS' proposal is 50% cheaper than the next lowest vendor reviewed by DTF.

B. Discussion ensued about how to handle BCCLS delivery vs. delivery by Expak.

a. Peter suggested using the BCCLS vendor for loans and Expak for returns. Committee members decided this would be too confusing.

b. Most likely, the BCCLS vendor would be used for everything except JerseyCat.

C. DTF feels a BCCLS vendor would be needed for about four months to safely get through the next transition from Expak to the new LLNJ vendor. This will cost around $93,000; Kurt says this should be okay with BCCLS' current money. DTF will reevaluate after 2-3 months to see if will be needed for longer. If this occurs, the Bergen County grant money could possibly go towards delivery.

D. NJLS can optionally offering scanning; Mr. Pladek did not think this was necessary. DTF discussed and agreed.

E. Peter motioned to make a formal recommendation to Executive Board that BCCLS contract with NJLS for temporary emergency delivery. Stephanie seconded. All in favor. The recommendation will be made at the February 28th Executive Board meeting.

IV. Loans

A. Loans will probably be turned back on on Monday, February 26. DTF discussed whether or not to limit the number of requests per patron.

B. Peter stated that his previous library was able to limit active requests in Polaris, so canceled requests did not count against the patron's limit. Because loans have been off for several weeks, it is likely that patrons still have old requests on their records that they no longer need. They would be able to cancel these without limiting them from new requests.

C. The committee discussed gradually increasing the limit on requests, such as starting with a maximum of three per patron, then increasing to six, etc. Kurt noted that the vast majority of patrons have one active hold at a time, with a decent number having 2-3. “High-volume” requesters are not that common.

D. Eric stated the BCCLS Office can work on an instructional video for patrons about managing their own hold queues.